


Roomates Shenanigans

by Okami01



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Fluff, Love Confessions, Misunderstandings, Multi, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 21:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30011010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami01/pseuds/Okami01
Summary: After a series of misunderstandings, exhaustion and feelings Reim thinks he'd be better off not having, truths are revealed. What it means for his, Sharon and Breaks's relationship, he still isn't sure.For PHmonth2021 - Vaguely the Rainsworth Trio blush prompt
Relationships: Xerxes Break/Reim Lunettes/Sharon Rainsworth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: Pandora Hearts Month 2021





	Roomates Shenanigans

Reim's been at his desk for an hour working. Or maybe it's been longer than that. But everyone else is trying their hardest. 

His students, his coworkers. Even coworkers that don't look like they're trying at all. Roommates that get on his last nerves. More specifically, Xerxes Break. 

Reim glances at the clock and goes back to work.

Yesterday Sharon and Xerxes went out drinking together. Sometimes Reim will go with them. He enjoys it, more often than not. 

Lately though, when it comes to productivity he hasn't been able to accomplish as much as he'd like. Sharon and Xerxes seem to have that effect on him. 

Because even though he seldom admits it, they're his friends and he likes living with them. 

He thinks he'd rather feel exhalation than things more complicated and hard to grasp. 

Reim isn't going to think of Xerxes right now. His very smiling image fills Reim with an unprompted annoyance and other feelings that will not aid in his duties. 

Cleans his glasses, pouting in the harsh glow of his desk light, and gets back to work. 

_

At some point, sleep must have taken Reim. Ill-advised and at his desk. The wood creaks as he wakes. But something… someone is beside him. 

A hand close to his face. Warm breath close to his forehead. 

Reim jumps, eyes wide, startled. Shouting. Who could be in his office? A voice of reason says that someone couldn't have so easily broken in. 

He blinks, rubs his eyes, glasses noticeably off his face. 

Who would be there but Xerxes? Sitting up on his desk, legs dangling. Marker hidden in his other hand presumably. 

" Oh hello Reim, you're awake."

Reim stands. Wobbles a bit to the side. But he's never going to get any work done now and he's pretty sure that he was drooling on his papers embarrassingly enough. 

" Yes," Reim hisses. "That sort of thing tends to happen when people are drawing on your face."

Xerxes raises his eyebrow quizzically before laughing again to himself. 

" You know you've got to take an opportunity when you can."

" An opportunity to slack off?"

" Reim," Xerxes says, placing one of his hands on his shoulders. Reim leans into him for some reason. Lack of sleep will do things to you, he rationalizes, far after the fact. 

" Wait, are you drunk?"

" Shh, don't worry about that." He leans closer, moves his hand, and places his finger over Reim's mouth. "Well… you'll probably worry about it, knowing you."

Xerxes seems to ponder this for a while, or maybe it seems like a while. And Reim doesn't really feel the energy to move back. His head already feels fuzzy. 

Xerxes only has vision in one of his eyes so if he needs to touch Reim to get his bearings sometimes then that's okay. 

" Anyway, come on. If you're awake I won't have to carry you."

Xerxes moves back slightly. 

" What are you talking about now, Break?" Reim grumbles, moving to sit back down. Xerxes places his hand back on Reim and they both wobble. 

They cross the room and start to go back to Reim's room. The rather short but somehow long feeling journey there doesn't make him feel anymore assured. 

" Are you happy?" Xerxes whispers suddenly, leaning up against Reim.

" What? Hmm... Yes, I suppose so." Reim isn't expecting the question. He spends the majority of his time working. Making sure Xerxes is working. Hoping that Sharon does some more practical work. Drinking. Alcohol. Keeping the teas they like in stock. 

Usually, he takes better care of himself or at least doesn't fall asleep at his desk. 

" Good, good.," Xerxes says sleepily and singsongingly. 

" Are you happy, Break?" Reim asks. Though who knows if he'll get a straight answer. 

" Hmm, who's to say…" 

"You… That's why I am asking you."

Xerxes stops, just short of Reim's room. Wobbles and leans up against the wall. They both nearly fall again. Reim's starting to suspect he's doing it on purpose. Because, even inebriated Xerxes has always been good at mapping out his surroundings. He dislikes things stopping him, something Reim would admire a lot more if it didn't make him so stubborn. 

Sharon was too. Perhaps she was even worse because at least Xerxes listened to her from time to time. 

Reim has to be stubborn about some things as well

" I would have had an easier time going back myself," he says under his breath. 

" If we got you a mini-fridge for your office you'd leave there." 

" I do enough of your work that I may as well."

" While that might be true…"

" Might be?!"

" Sharon wanted to go out and then she started calling herself queen and I had to carry her home," Xerxes says wistfully, perhaps trying to change the subject. 

" And you're here doodling the night away. You should have come with us, that would be more fun."

Reim raises his eyebrow.  
" Come with you so that I could carry her?"

Xerxes raises his eyebrow. He laughs and it's almost infectious. Both annoying and nice to hear.

" Asking someone to carry her is still carrying her I think."

Xerxes steps forward into Reim's room. Some help he is and sits in his chair.  
Arguing has made Reim more alert. 

Still, he yawns. If anything it's been an hour since he fell asleep technically. If he gets three more hours he could get back to work. 

" You're happy working and she's happy drinking tea and domineering," Xerxes continues. Perhaps getting to some sort of point as Reim follows him into the dimly lit space 

" Do you remember why you moved in here?" He asks from within the near darkness. 

" We all moved into this apartment because you don't get any work done and Sharon wanted… friends."

" Something like that."

" And-" Reim hastily adds " I only moved in here because I didn't have enough money. It's cheap and a short commute to work. 

" So if I paid for your alcohol at a bar,"

" Neither of us have enough money actually."

Which is hardly the issue. Well, it's one of them but it hardly matters.

" I've seen the way that you look at Lady Sharon," Reim says. He already wishes he hadn't. His headache is already coming back. 

" Oh so it's Lady Sharon again… Must you act like some medieval old man, Reim?"

Break's eye glints in the darkness. Reim scowls. 

" But anyway… we want you to go with us," Xerxes says. It sounds sincere. Almost frighteningly so. 

Reim ought to light a candle and scrutinize Break's face. He cleans his glasses, takes them off, and puts them back on. Not that he can see very well in the low light anyway. 

Perhaps Reim feels something else besides friendship for Sharon. Perhaps Break is annoying him on purpose. He could be pitting him but that's drastically out of character. 

Despite everything, he doesn't doubt Xerxes's feelings when he finally decides to get serious. Unnecessary jovial man that he is, he's always been devoted to Sharon. 

Reim takes far too long to say. " You needn't feel sorry for me. I'm glad Sharon is happy.'

Reim has never been fond of romance. It makes things awkward. Or at least it has recently for the three of them. 

Break is usually happy. So is Sharon. Reim won't ever not be his same stressed-out self. That's fine.

" If you're going to go anyway I suppose I'll go with you next time. You get on my nerves constantly, Xerxes. At this point, you're still someone I consider to be my friend."

Because they'd been coworkers for years. Because almost instantly it felt like they were supposed to be together. Xerxes and Sharon had gotten close and Reim found he liked being close to them. 

Reim wasn't one to believe in such things, but he almost thought it could be fate. 

Xerxes stands up at that. Smiling. The rare more sincere one. Reim's heart pounds at that. Maybe he's not eating enough. 

"Good," Xerxes says poking him on the forehead. Smiling and staring. 

" Sharon will be relieved. Do try to get some rest. It'll be another hard day tomorrow. "

" Because of you."

Instead of denying it, Break spins around dramatically and leaves, clocking the light off as he does. 

Reim lays there in the relative darkness. He takes off his glasses and he falls asleep almost immediately.

___

He'd forgotten to close the blinds. Light trickles in. And in his windows reflection, he can see that he has no marker smudges on his face.

Close to him is the fragrant and familiar scent of Sharon's tea. 

He turns and is startled when Sharon Rainsworth herself is sitting in a chair behind him at his other window. 

" Hello, Reim," she says cheerfully, smiling and nodding in the sunlight. 

"Hello, Sharon," Reim answers back. " I hope you have not been here for long… N-not that I dislike your being here of course… I doubt watching me sleep provides much entertainment."

Sharon laughs. "No, no it's entertaining. You have a nice face, Reim."

She looks at him and Reim can feel his face heating all over again. 

" Ah, thank you. I believe that you do as well."

She giggles. " Why thank you. Though I suppose that I ought to tell you why I'm here to talk to you now specifically."

She pauses, drinks a sip of tea, and then says,  
"I've decided we're getting married."

Reim fights back a sigh. He's happy for them but he can't say he's completely thrilled.  
"Congratulations." He says anyway. 

"Did Xerxes not tell you… Ahh… Of course, he didn't." Her fingers slightly unwrapping around her teacup. She clinches it and pouts. 

"Huh… wait...what?"

"All of us," Sharon says, as if that clarifies anything.

Reim sits up straighter in his bed, blindly reaches for his nightstand as if his glasses are going to help him see things more clearly. 

Sharon places her cup on the window seal and crosses her arms. Then uncrosses them and stands. 

" That man," she says, walking forward. Pouting again. Reim finds it cuter than he probably should. "Honestly he never shares the things he truly ought to."

Reim nods. If it's one thing he's sure of it's that.

Sharon sits on his bed. Reim blinks, watching her adjust the ruffles of her rather unnecessarily frilly but nice dress. 

Maybe Reim's sure that he likes Sharon as well. He should probably tell her to get off his bed. Because it isn't exactly proper. 

He's sure that Break annoys him. This whole situation fills him with a strange sense of dread.

" It may not be my place to say," Sharon says suddenly full of conviction. " No, it is exactly my place. I've always thought that nothing had to change."

She pouts and glares at him, face flushed before shaking her head and hunching her shoulders. 

"That I was happy with the way things are. But I am… I'm greedy and in light of new information… new emotions… I've decided, Reim, that we are all going to get married."

She nods, presumably to herself and her posture corrects itself. On his bed still. 

Reim knows exactly where he is and yet he feels so lost.

" Ah, excuse me I really don't know what you're… talking about."

Tiredness and panic fight for dominance but neither has to truly manifest itself.

" Reim Lunettes."

" Yes?" Reim suddenly feels nervous for some reason.

" I am in love with you."

"Ahh T-thank you. So you've said, b-but-"

" You are in love with me, are you not?"

" Well… um yes, that is also true… still I-"

" Xerxes Break is a cryptic foolish man. He is in love with the both of us."

" What?"

" Sharon, hey that's very rude," Break says from through the wall.

" However, it is true. So I shall say it," Sharon replies, yelling back.

Reim stands up, startled, sure that this is some sort of elaborate practice joke.

" Three people cannot be wed," Reim protests.

" That's your only issue," Xerxes replies, having given up eavesdropping and just walking into the room. 

" They can. It's legal," not that Sharon or Xerxes have ever particularly cared about legality. " Besides, think of the tax benefits."

" Oh, that's true."

" The two of you are actually ridiculous, " Break injects."

" The two of us," Sharon shouts. " You're the one who said you were going to tell Reim in the first place."

" Hmm well," Break looks off into the distance as if he didn't hear.  
Sharon glares at him and moves closer. Now that he's gotten over his initial shock, Reim glares at him as well.

" Ugh now you're ganging up on me, that's mean. You both said that you were happy."

" I was" Reim starts, so hastily that he feels he hasn't considered the other options. Perhaps he doesn't need to. He knows what he should do in his heart, as crazy as that is. 

He takes a breath

"I believe that I still am. I suppose that we could. Things could be improved upon in that regard."

" That's very romantic," Xerxes says.

" Oh no, you're the last person who needs to talk, you didn't say anything."

" I was going too."

" Yesterday… wait-" Reim startles himself. Xerxes smiles. But he can't get out of this conversation so easily. 

" Yesterday you… were you trying to… kiss me."

Xerxes licks his lips. Reim tracks the movement. Probably a mistake. Because it only makes him blush. 

Xerxes shrugs and looks serious as he speaks. 

" I don't need to try. It's not a problem of not knowing how."

Reim's face suddenly feels the same heat he would if he stuck his head in a tea kettle. His heart pounds. Or perhaps it hasn't stopped since he woke up this morning 

" But maybe I was checking to see if you were alive." Xerxes shrugs.  
"Figured it would be better if you were alive and awake."

" That… That's not how you check someone's vitals."

" Do you want to show me?"

Despite being shorter, Xerxes almost seems to hover over him. 

Reim isn't exactly sure what he's supposed to do here.

Xerxes does. He pulls Reim closer, smooths his hand over his back, the other at his waist. His lips are warm and it feels strangely good.

" I love you, Xerxes," Reim declares. It feels a little backward but so many things in their lives are. 

" I see tha- ow did you just step on my foot? Fine, fine. I love you too. And if you weren't such an easily satisfied workaholic then maybe you would have known sooner."

" Ugh, I swear you're ridiculous too."

On one hand, when they're kissing Xerxes can't say a bunch of annoying unnecessary things. On the other hand, Reim finds that he likes it anyway.

Who in the world would Xerxes be, if not himself?

Sharon giggles, moved over back to drink her tea but she stands again. Walking back over " How nice… Still…"  
More excitedly she says.

" I want to do that too!"

" It could be awkward standing," Reim says. " Perhaps the bed." He feels something, embarrassed at the suggestion but Xerxes and Sharon both nod. 

They fall on the bed, laughing, touching each other. Hugging all at once in a strange new way. 

" We'll need to buy a bigger bed… demolish the walls perhaps," Sharon suggests. 

Xerxes laughs.  
" We could procure a sledgehammer and then-"

Reim objects.  
" No, no sledgehammers. Why in the world would we do that, aren't we renting the place?"

" I could probably buy this building," Sharon says. " Even so, surely our landlord would understand if it were out of love."

" I doubt that," Reim says shaking his head

" Hmm, Reim likes to sleep at his desk anyways." Xerxes laughs. 

" Perhaps Break will have to sleep on the floor." Reim grouses. 

Sharon shakes her head, still giggling. "Sleeping is hardly the only thing that can be done on a bed.

Sunlight trickles sunlight through the windows, birds chirp outside. They've got the weekend, well, Reim usually likes to get work done now too. But this isn't bad. Actually, it's downright good. Like it was meant to be or something. 

He'll have to get back to work soon, papers do not simply grade themselves. 

He wonders, briefly, distracted by the warmth of his friends and now newly found romantic partners...

Is it really that simple that all of this becomes a part of their lives? That they can all be happy together like this?

Reim supposes that it can be. That it is. And when he falls back asleep, it's out of satisfaction and not exhaustion.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading! Happy Pandora Hearts month. I love this manga and ship and have yet to write anything for it so here we are. This fic is the culmination of that modern college professors au in the bonus manga and me not wanting to write angst. 
> 
> @Tavitay on Twitter


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